Files, directories, and file systems

Files are a fundamental concept in all popular operating systems. This is also completely true for the Linux OS, which is characterized by the idea that “everything is a file.” Files are grouped into directories, which in turn can contain other subdirectories, thus creating a tree structure.

The file system is the method for structuring and organizing data on the computer. It represents a management table stored on the disk, which the operating system uses to access the files. The entries in this table are called inode and can briefly be defined as the serial number of the file.

Basic commands for working with the file system under Linux are presented in the table below:

Command	Description
pwd	Prints the name of the current directory
ls	Lists the contents of the directory
mkdir	Creates a directory
cd	Changes the working directory
rmdir	Deletes a directory
cp	Copies files and directories
mv	Moves and/or renames files
rm	Deletes files and/or directories
ln	Creates a link between files
cat	Concatenates files and prints to standard output